Our Blog

Ana Beatriz's First Steps!

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:44:51 -0300

Today is the 2nd day of Ana Beatriz’s big “walking” debut!

Patrick’s favorite little girl in the nursery has been on the verge of walking by herself for a few weeks now. Yesterday when her mom came to pick her up at the end of the day she got a BIG surprise! Her mom knew she was close, but hadn’t seen her make any big progress in walking yet. When her mom came to get her, we let her come into the nursery area and Ana Bea walked about five feet to get to her mom! It was so amazing to see how proud her mother’s face was as she watched her daughter come walking to her at the end of the day.

Moments like these are not only special for the children and parents, but for us also. Every day we have with these children is truly a blessing and a gift from God. To be a part of their lives, watching them grow from babies into little people, its amazing. I know its our “work” that we’ve been called here to do, but these kids are more than that, they’re part of our family. Although we don’t have any children of our own yet, in a way we do... about a hundred of them!

St. Luke's Team at the House of Hope

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:44:49 -0300

This past week we hosted a team from John & Fabi’s church in Ohio, St. Luke’s. For those of you from St. Andrew’s, this is Pastor Steve Wood’s old church before he moved to St. Andrew’s.

This was a great blessing not only for the House of Hope, but for John & Fabi as well! This was the first team to come from their church!

The photo above has all but one of the team members in it (she was taking the photo). The team of 7 young women were here for a week to bless the kids at the House of Hope. It just so happened that while they were here, the HoH was having a week long vacation Bible school for all the children. Each day they worked with the kids doing arts & crafts to learn Bible stories, dramas, and just got some good quality time to play, pray, and love on the kids.

They were a real blessing to all the kids at the House of Hope, John & Fabi & their girls, and us, we hope to see their smiling faces in the not-too-distant future again here in Brazil!

Rachel’s Parents Visit Recife

Tue, 8 Jun 2010 15:12:45 -0300

The last week of May we had some lovely visitors stay with us, MARK & JANE COOKE! We were SO excited and blessed to have them here with us. We always enjoy having visitors so we can show them around and have them be a part of what we’re doing.

They jumped right in with us at the House of Hope and were ready to get involved. If ever there was a moment we weren’t sure where they were, inevitably we would find them on the floor of the nursery playing with babies. Jane went over to the co-op where the women from the community were sewing and sat right down with them and helped them with their project. Mark studied Portuguese quite a bit before their arrival and came ready to meet and speak with just about everyone, it was awesome. He even preached at the House of Hope Mission Church (with a translator).

We took them to see all the sights in here in Recife; we even let them experience what’s its like to be in a car that got hit by a bus! (we’re all ok, we just got cut off and the front of our car got crunched)

If you’d like to see some photos of their time here, click here! (or go to our photo page)

A Special Guest at the House of Hope!

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:46:04 -0300

Today we were more than privileged to welcome a VERY special guest to the House of Hope. That’s right, Ronald McDonald!!! He was in town doing some live shows at restaurants and various other locations.

In addition to speaking Portuguese, Ronald did several other great tricks and put on a GREAT show for the kids. He juggled, did magic tricks, spoke against littering, and even spoke about diversity! This clown does it all!!

The kids AND teachers all had a LOT of fun singing and dancing with Ronald. (although there were a few babies that were a bit traumatized this having been their first time exposed to a clown)

But all in all, a good time was had by all. Ronald even “blessed” the kids by leaving us enough Happy Meal toys to give to all the kids as well as coloring/activity sheets.

If you want to see more PHOTOs of our fun day, check out the House of Hope link on our Photos page

Wisconsin School Supporting the House of Hope

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:46:04 -0300

Foxview Intermediate School in De Pere, Wisconsin (hometown of Patrick’s parents) is helping the House of Hope here in Brazil in BIG ways. Foxview is a middle school that only houses 5th and 6th graders.

The entire school is currently involved in a campaign to raise up school supplies for the House of Hope. They’ve been very busy collecting supplies and raising money to be able to ship all the materials to Recife. They’ve been holding raffles, using proceeds from concession sales at sporting events, and even having donation buckets out at lunch hour.

After Patrick’s parents, John & Peggy, came to visit last September, they left with a very different perspective on things. They began sharing their stories of their time in Brazil with friends, family, co-workers, and pretty much anyone that will listen! Many have become aware of the need that the House of Hope is in and have gotten involved in what’s going on here. There is so much that you can do, even when you’re not in the same country!

When we first accepted this offer for them to get involved we thought that we might get a box or two of pencils and paper. However, we’re beginning to get concerned that we won’t have enough room for everything! What an amazing blessing!

Thank you to everyone at Foxview that has participated in helping out the House of Hope. If you’d like to see the video that we sent to the kids at Foxview, click here!